Month: October 2024

A few short months ago it was two very old men running for President, both suffering from some cognitive decline. The one with integrity and good character drops out and the other with zero integrity stays in the race and sells bibles and shoes on the side. A  younger woman enters the race, but she is getting “ blacker”  by the minute and is a socialist, communist, fascist, and enemy of the state and stupid— this according to the “trustworthy”, demented old man still in the race. Just an ordinary election year in the country we all love. I am very afraid that we are sleep walking into the loss of our democracy and we are just watching it happen. Wake up!!

When I was 6, my family moved from a small farm in Iowa to Chicago. I went from cows mooing and green fields to honking cars and lots of concrete. Talk about culture shock! I asked my Mom why that man’s skin was dark, and if he was dirty and needed to take a bath. My cousin Brad, still living in Iowa at the time, wanted to know why blacks always smelled bad? When I asked him how many he had smelled, he said none, but his uncle had. I was young so I think I adapted quickly, my parents had a harder time of it. Why am I sharing this story? To tell you about myself, but..you know there is always a but. Everything I have just told you is a lie! I just made it up. It was so easy too. How do we feel about being deceived? It pisses me off! What if we trust the people who are lying to us? Betrayal is not something anyone looks forward to.

Shakespeare said “ What a tangled web we weave when we first practice to deceive.” What did he mean? Don’t waste your time trying to answer this, it’s a trick question because Shakespeare did not say this. It is a quote from a Walter Scott poem. Already the web of deceit is being woven. Lies are compounded and people get more confused. It’s much easier to be consistent when you only need to remember one version of a story, the truth

Fact-checking is the process of verifying the factual accuracy of questioned reporting and statements. What if I had a fact checker following me around? It is a fierce battle to fact-check when there are so many lies being put forth as the truth. Social media, and Trump and his minions, vomit lies by the  millisecond. What if I start to question the conspiracies my tribe subscribes to? I could end up ostracized and alone.   Propaganda is spreading lies in order to help a cause, a political leader or a government. Social media and Trump and his minions vomit lies every millisecond. Propaganda magnifies doubt, and doubt magnifies fear. Fear can promote aggression, disengagement and paralysis. I know I cycle thru these emotions every day.

People lie for a multitude of reasons. It may be to get other people to like them, to control a situation or because they desperately want something  to be true.The question is not why do people lie, it is “Why do people tell the truth?” Truth or consequences, but what if there are no consequences for lying?. I think, no one else will ever know.”,but I  will know. I  “embellish” or “ stretch the truth” or leave out parts of stories, and kid myself  that I am not  lying.If  we build our lives on lies,  the truth can be an earthquake of destruction. I have learned the truth about some family myths and I’m not sure if this was a net positive.

The lies I tell to myself about myself are lies just the same.The psychological costs of lying can be lower self esteem, more stress from “managing” the lie, and guilt and shame. My intention is to tell the truth and do the right thing, but to be “honest” I fail a good share of  the time.

“The fact that a great many people believe something is no guarantee of its truth.” —W. Somerset Maugham, writer. AND Margaret Taylor Greene is lying when she says the federal government controls the weather. I know it’s a lie because she has not been struck by lightning.